Deal of the week - Time/IPC Media

It was Cravath Swaine & Moore in the US that first introduced Herbert Smith to Time Warner. The firm has now handled a lot of work for it since its merger with America Online.
This is the company's first magazine acquisition in Europe, and the purchase of IPC Media gives it the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher. IPC was the subject of a management buyout from Reed Elsevier in 1998, and this deal values it at £1.15bn.
Herbert Smith fielded a mammoth team of four corporate partners - Richard Fleck, James Palmer, Anthony Macauley and Gavin Davies - and as many again from other departments. Those included tax partner David Martin, banking partner Kevin Pullen, competition partner Stephen Wisking and employment partners Paul Ellerman and Andrew Brown.
The team worked closely with an in-houser from Time, the magazine publishing arm of AOL Time Warner, where the team was led by Bob McCarthy.